Warriors, elves, goblins, merfolk, knights, constructs/golems (artifact synergy mostly but they benefit from name a creature type effects), humans, zombies, clerics, wizards, elementals, vampires, fungus/saprolings, druids, cats, and spirits are great. Since no one seems to really be answering the question in the title directly, here's a list of tribes I've found work well in draft, and some that don't: Also be sure to include generic tribal payoffs like ], ], and low CMC changelings, especially ] and ]. ] and ] are two cards that support different tribes, but both are great cards outside of their tribes and most people wouldn't turn either down in a red deck elementals will gladly take the removal/pressure from siege gang and goblins will never say no to more bodies whenever they cast a token generating spell or removal. Do you want to play tempo/ramp Simic elves, or do you want to play aggressive/weenie Selesnya elves? Also consider using good cards on their own that double as tribal payoffs. Tribes that are found in 3+ colors are the best because they have options when building your deck. In this cube, you can almost always default into a control, aggro, or midrange deck, but there are a number of archetypes you can opt into as well that I'd like to highlight.I find the best way to go with tribes is make them a single supported archetype out of multiple nontribal themes, but a pure tribal cube can work without being completely on rails, it's just tricky to balance.Ī good strategy is to make your tribes flexible. With my cube, I've tried to find a balance where you don't necessarily need to draft a specific archetype to succeed, but there are a few "payoff" cards that heavily incentivize playing to a specific archetype. Some cubes will have very low archetype focus and might look like a pile of "good stuff." On the other end of the spectrum, you may have something like a tribal cube, where every card has been added with the explicit intention of belonging in a select number of strategies.
One metric I always look for first when evaluating cubes is the "archetype focus." I like to think of this as a sliding scale. With that in mind, today I am sharing my Dekkaru Cube. As a cube designer, my goals have always been to create an interesting Draft experience with varied but competitive gameplay. Part of why I think Cube is the best format is that it can be whatever format the designer wishes it to be. I have been playing Magic since the release of Zendikar, and much of that time has been spent playing Cube. You may also know me as the founder and administrator for ( on Twitter), a website that helps you build and maintain your cube. This coming week (May 13–20), we have Gwen Dekker's Dekkaru Cube, and next week (May 20–27) will be John Terrill's Cultic Cube. And who knows-if you like these cubes, maybe when the event can happen, you'll be inspired to take a trip and play a weekend of Cube with dozens of new friends.īut for now, here's what's happening starting next Wednesday, we're going to be running two weeks of spotlighted cubes featuring CubeCon offerings. So, while the in-person event may be postponed, we're still going to be running two of the CubeCon cubes. However, Magic Online never sleeps, and no pandemic is going to slow us down. Sadly, recent events have made the in-person event unfeasible for the foreseeable future. "Let's run a few of these cubes on Magic Online," I proposed, "and we can help out with prize support at your in-person event as well."
I'm always looking for cubes that might fit our needs, so when I heard about an upcoming event in Wisconsin called CubeCon that was going to feature a lot of different cubes over the course of a single weekend, I reached out to them for a partnership.
Mtg cube elf payoff series#
Magic Online's Spotlight Cube Series has been around for almost exactly two years, and it is a hungry beast.